Cruel, the directorial debut of celebrated crime novelist Eric Cherrière, takes an interesting approach to the serial killer film. As the title suggests, its killer, Pierre Tardieu, is a cruel man, but Cherrière’s somber film looks to explore how he turned into a monster and what his horrific acts do to him emotionally. Though there are scenes of brutality (more suggestive than graphic), the most disturbing aspect of Cruel may be that in the end, Pierre just wants what everyone else wants: to be loved and to be recognized for his work. His work involves abducting and murdering people, sure, but Pierre works hard at it, goddammit!

Pierre (Jean-Jacques Lelté) lives a life of isolation. Through home videos and voiceovers, we learn of his early aspirations – where he wanted to go in life, how he wanted to marry his mother. Now grown, he bounces between temp jobs and takes care of his dad, who has crippling Alzheimer’s. His dad is the only one Pierre confides in. Knowing he can’t speak, Pierre goes into detail about his latest victims. There’s no sense of pleasure in his voice, however. Lelté effectively portrays the human side alongside Pierre’s murderous one. Sometimes his face is a blank state. other times there’s a rage boiling just under the surface.

In a lot of serial killer tales, the killer has some kind of quirk or song and dance routine to make them stand out in the milieu of pop culture. That’s why I love that Pierre is just a normal, bummed out guy who finds a release in murder. After doing his research, Pierre keeps his victims alive in his cellar for a short time. He talks with them, feeds them, even offering a hearty last meal before disposing of them.

It initially seems like Pierre is toying with his victims. He talks to them and delivers taunts about the life he took away from them. But I read it more as a pseudo-therapy session. Pierre is trying to tap into what it is that makes them happy and why they believe that happiness is worthwhile. When he abducts a man who’s expecting his first child, Pierre asks him “You think being a father is important? Will it make you happy?” Possibly by abducting these more successful, fulfilled people he believes he can find the root of his own depression.

Salvation comes in the form of Laure (Magali Moreau), a romantic interest whose presence manages to quell his thirst for blood. As their relationship grows and Pierre begins to imagine a new future for himself, his years of killing finally come back to haunt him. When he’s with her, he seems genuinely  content. But can a film titled Cruel have a happy ending? No. The final moments are heart wrenching.

There are times when it feels like Cherrière is favoring mood over substance. The film drags its feet a bit with long sequences of Pierre brooding. A few of these moments could use some trimming to move the story along. At times they took me out of the narrative rather than further into it.

Cruel is a relentlessly bleak film. We stay inside Pierre’s head for the entire duration and it’s a suffocating place of anguish. The gloomy cinematography and the performances all heighten this bummer vibe while also creating a suspenseful tone that threatens to snap our senses at any moment. When the cops come sniffing around, there film threatens to descend into formulaic genre territory. This never happens, thankfully. Cruel remains a dense, murky character study throughout.